The expanding universe (of knowledge)
Scientists at the University of Georgia, the University of California, San Diego, UCLA, California State Polytechnic University and the Australia National University have collaborated on a study, published in the journal Nature, suggesting new information on how planets are formed.
began with a curious and unexpected finding: Within three years, the cloud of dust circling a young star in the Scorpius-Centaurus stellar nursery simply disappeared.
"The most commonly accepted time scale for the removal of this much dust is in the hundreds of thousands of years, sometimes millions," said study co-author Inseok Song, assistant professor of physics and astronomy in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. "What we saw was far more rapid and has never been observed or even predicted. It tells us that we have a lot more to learn about planet formation."